After a long day of multiple conversations and meetings, Central High School’s athletic director Brett Baldwin and West Albany’s athletic director Don Lien came to a mutual understanding that Central High School would forfeit to West Albany for the varsity football game planned for tomorrow, Sept. 29. According to Lien, Central’s team has a significant number of players out due to injuries or illness, preventing them from bringing a competitive team.

     “It’s just not conducive to a varsity game,” Lien said. “[It] would just wreak havoc for a coach trying to play a varsity match with kids that are just learning the playbook.” 

     Central’s is the third forfeit from an Oregon high school football team due to sickness in the past few weeks, with Putnam High School forfeiting to Hillsboro and again to Hood River. 

     “[The schools are] just so depleted right now due to illness that they weren’t able to fill a team to play,” Lien said. 

     Lien, Principal Rich Engel, and the football coaches gathered West Albany’s team at the beginning of lunch today to break the news. 

     “I was really proud of the way [our team] handled [the news]…They understood it was completely out of anybody’s control, and they made the best of it,” Engel said.

     Due to the forfeit, the two schools’ respective JV2 teams will play in place of the varsity game tomorrow, and the homecoming court coronation will be postponed to the next home game versus Silverton on Oct. 20. The homecoming dance will proceed as planned on Saturday, Sept. 30.